


A Dream within a Dream

by Kaiaxy



Category: Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dark Humor, M/M, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Midoriya Izuku is Salty, Midoriya Izuku is Uzumaki Naruto, Midoriya Izuku is a Little Shit, Reincarnation, Sassy Midoriya Izuku, THEY’RE THE SAME PERSON, Uchiha Sasuke is a Good Friend, dont make the duckbutt angry izu, more like a dozen, my poor broccoli sunshine child, no jumping off cliffs izu, probably even more, why? Sas says so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:41:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28930434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiaxy/pseuds/Kaiaxy
Summary: So, perhaps leaping from a two story building wasn’t the greatest way to go. Izuku wasn’t sure yet whether he regretted it or not, even if the trauma was pretty convincing of the former. When Izuku had died he never even considered the possibility of being reborn in a universe not his own. It didn’t seem plausible to him and so, of course, that was what happened. Go figure.Yes, Izuku was a tad bit salty. Just a bit.(He was almost grateful his new friend Sas seemed to be aware of his more reckless tendencies, or else Izuku was sure he would have tried his lot with reincarnation again when he learned just how, as Kacchan would say, majorly fucked his new life is. Child soldiers were the norm and ninjas were real. For some reason the general populace seemed to hate his guts. But hey, at least he wasn’t useless in this life based on bad luck and equally horrible genetics? And he made a friend.)
Relationships: Midoriya Izuku & Uchiha Sasuke, Midoriya Izuku/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 18
Kudos: 95





	1. Never Meet Your Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> !Trigger warning!
> 
> Suicide ideation and attempt, graphic violence, panic attacks, and probably more later on. 
> 
> This fic explores dark real world concepts that could be very triggering to some. Please take care of yourself and put your mental health first and foremost before taking a chance with this fic. Thank you. 
> 
> And to those who will read this fic, I hope you enjoy! :)

Everything he has ever dreamed of has all finally come to a head. Every tear, every laugh, every hurt, it all seemed to culminate to this very moment. Him, standing face to face with the hero he has always admired most of all. If Izuku believed in fate and destiny, he would say it is written in the very stars themself. That was it for him.

(Izuku would never be ready for just how much it would hurt.)

  
  
  


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Izuku stood his ground unshakably, with determination running through his veins and fire in his eyes. For a moment, for a fleeting, hopeless moment, Izuku truly believed All Might would be different.

He was wrong.

  
  


“I’m sorry, but no, I honestly don’t think you can be a hero without a quirk. It’s simply too dangerous. Some villains just won't be beaten without powers. I’m sorry, my boy, you can't be a hero.” All Might continued to speak to him, but he was no longer listening. All he heard were those five damning words.

  
  


_ You can’t be a hero. _

  
  


It shook Izuku to his core. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even blink, could do nothing but watch with dull eyes as All Might took to the skies. Unknowingly, so did his dreams of ever becoming a hero. It felt like a death sentence. 

Midoriya Izuku cannot be a hero. He should not even try. 

Fire burning down his cheeks and knives in his heart, his body shakes, his legs move, but he is no longer there. His mind a shackle, his tears are him screaming, and suddenly he is a prisoner of himself. Not in control anymore, out of his mind, out of hope, out of wanting; Izuku is as impassive as he is crazed, lost as he is saved, staring at the town below. 

_ ‘You really wanna have a quirk so bad? Take a swan dive off the roof and pray you have a quirk in your next life, Deku!’ _

His feet step forward, and he falls, falls, falls.

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W̴̨̢̞͉̦̼͎̹̎̈́̂h̶̹̰̞̤̠̮̙͆̒͛̑̈͝ÿ̸̼͖̘͎͍̞͕̥́̅̔͒̈̏̄͠ ̶͍̒͒͋̔̿w̴̛̜̭̺̮̤̦̞̘͙͋͐̄͛̾̉͂̓̅ͅô̶̡̺̤̯̾̌̿̆̋̔͐͘̕͜n̵͓͉͓̱̬̝̜̻̑͋̋̊̂͌̉͒͠ͅ’̸̡̤̩̰̪͌̀͌͋̇́̍t̸̛̘̥̫͆̆̓̀͆̇̇ ̶̳̖̘͗̚ͅs̸̖̘̄̒̏̅̃͐̉͌̾̚ợ̶͚̼̪͖̻̼̗̰̜̄̍͛̉̾̍͝m̵̥͕͎͉̗̝͓̖͇͋̓̐͋̀̃͒͋̓͒e̵͚̼̦͇̠̯͖̘͇̒̋̑̇̂̚b̸̧̭͍̥̋̈́̊ͅo̸̡̼͎̿͒́d̷̩̠͍̮͔̂̐͝y̷̡̡̬̳͆̔͊̍ ̶̳̱̇̉̆͊̚s̸͔͋̇͗͝ͅa̵̞͓̟̫̝̰̝̓̆̈́͋̑̐̾̇͑͒ͅͅv̶̧͓͚͕͒̏̇́̈̚͠é̵̲̮͈͒̒͋͌̏̚ ̷̢̻͚̩̬̩͖̮̔͌̅͑h̶̖̾̍̏̊̐̿͂i̸̖͙̖͚̾ͅm̸̱̫̩̫̞̟̝̏̀̋̀̔̑̏̏͘ͅ?̴̲̬̅̌̍͌̄̍͂̐

  
  
  
  
  


Izuku awoke with a strangled gasp for air and the phantom feeling of flesh hitting the pavement with a sickening  _ squelch  _ and  _ crunch  _ as his bones broke. It took all his effort not to scream as the horror replayed itself within his mind on an endless loop of pain and utter defeat, again and again, the cracks within his already fractured mind break even more. Bile makes its way up from his stomach, but Izuku swallows it down along with his sobs.

Mindful that he is not alone, Izuku tries his best to stay quiet, but it was  _ hard.  _ He wanted his mom. He wants her to hug him. To make him warm milk and comfort him and tell him everything will be okay. 

_ ‘But things aren’t okay,’  _ his mind whispered. The reminder sent a sharp searing pain to his heart.  _ Things aren’t okay. He’s dead. _

_ He’s dead and she’s gone, gone,  _ **_gone-_ **

“Shut up Naruto-baka!” “Quiet!” “Shh!”

Oh. Right, Izuku is supposed to be quiet. “S-sorry,” he croaked out. His stomach began churning from the guilt he felt at waking up his fellow orphans.

_ Pathetic. _

Izuku wiped away his tears and  _ smiled.  _ It almost did not hurt as much when he did. Almost.

In the end, Izuku only managed to get a couple more hours of fitful sleep before the rising sun cast an iridescent hue across the morning sky. He watched as the village slowly came alive with people hurrying to and fro, children began playing in the streets, and shop owners tidying and opening up their stalls. A strange feeling overcame Izuku. It was like sadness, but different somehow. More profound. He-

The sound of someone clearing their throat loud broke through his musings, startling Izuku so much he toppled over from where he was leaning on a windowsill. He felt a bit of vertigo from standing up too quickly, but any complaints he had died very quick in his throat when he saw the venomous glare aimed his way. What did he do this time to piss off Chiyo? 

More aware of his surroundings now, Izuku only then became aware of just how silent the room was and felt dread pool in his stomach. He missed breakfast again, did he not? He did.

“Boy, how many times do I have to remind you to stop daydreaming?!” The caretaker paused in her scolding to glare at Naruto  _ (Izuku, Izuku, not Naruto never Naruto, he’s Izuku-) _ as if daring him to say anything to rebut her. Pursing her lips in disgust, she continued, ”I don’t want to hear it. Time and time again, you disappoint me. Why can’t you just do as you're told like the other children? It's not that difficult to follow the rules and yet... You continue to selfishly disregard them time and time again, like a monster.” 

By now, Chiyo was not even looking at him. “Just go.”

His lip wobbled dangerously, but Izuku would not cry (not yet at least) and nodded his head even though his caretaker had not deemed him another glance. She looks troubled, and it is all his fault. 

Izuku felt sick.

“Okay,” he whispers. Swallowing down the lump in his throat, Izuku goes as quickly as was socially acceptable. Once out of sight, Izuku began to run as fast as his small legs would allow him. Toward the exit, he ignores the tears that were now streaming down his face, and clouding his vision, he leaves.

_ Like a monster. _

When Izuku came back after the sun had set, the doors were all locked, and the very few belongings he had in the nearby dumpster. That was the last time Izuku had ever gone into Konoha’s orphanage.


	2. Ninjas Are Stupid and Izuku Is Done

Some might say he’s Uzumaki Naruto in this world and should move on. And by all means, did Izuku wish he could let go of the past, but he  _ couldn’t _ . His life as Midoriya Izuku may be over but that didn’t mean it had never happened. It wouldn’t be right to let the name Izuku fade to obscurity, it wouldn't be right to just forget it all, it wouldn’t be right to just stop being Midoriya Izuku. But it wouldn’t be right to not be Uzumaki Naruto either.

And so, he cried.

He cried for the person he used to be, he cried for the person he no longer was but still is, and cried for a boy whose only mistake was being born into a broken system. He grieved for Midoriya Izuku; he grieved for himself. For the boy who had dreamed big but always fell just a bit too short, a boy whose only aspiration was to help others and yet, in the end, failed to help himself. 

He cried for Uzumaki Izuku.

  
  


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When oneself is virtually invisible, people do not tend to notice you, and when people are not aware of you, they talk. Usually, it’s miscellaneous talk about the weather, or talk of somebody screwing somebody else's wife, typical village gossip about who caught who doing what. But sometimes, very rarely, Izuku overhears something that worries him.

_ “-those red eyes, man. Imagine having the power to copy any jutsu, ugh, what I’d give for a dojutsu like that. Those lucky bastards-” _

_ “Heard the next batch of genin might be pretty promising, did you know that Hatake Kakashi is a Jonin sensei now? What, no way. Yup, supposedly-” _

_ “I swear to god I’m not lying, you assess. I swear, I put my sword through his heart, his liver, and sliced his neck to ribbons but the bastard just wouldn’t die! It's driving me nuts-” _

Truthfully, Izuku had not understood much of the snippets of conversation he overheard, but what he  _ did _ understand certainly did not paint a good picture in his head about the government, the world, and the place he had in it. He did not want to draw any conclusions just yet without having a full picture, it was, admittedly, sort of difficult considering he overheard some people talk about attempting murder as if giving the weather forecast. He was not even going to think about the implications of somebody being unable to die. Nope, nuh-uh, not going down that slippery slope.

(For now, at least)

Nobody questioned a five-year-old child wandering around anywhere all by their lonesome. Back in his first life, that would have been impossible without someone calling the cops. Killing other people is not illegal in this world, and therein some kind of system for it had to exist. Otherwise, it would be complete anarchy and lawlessness. From what Izuku could gather, the citizens felt safe enough to let their children go wherever they pleased without supervision. So the military must be strong, and if he was right jutsu was this world's quirk? Izuku was not sure.

Izuku felt like slapping himself upside down the head more than a few times when he realized just how roundabout and needlessly complicated he had made something that could have been  _ so _ simple. Where do you go for easily accessible information? The library! Somebody give this little boy an award! Izuku cringed at himself, feeling rather dumb and foolish. 

Was he truly that out of it? 

The answer was yes, yes he was. Izuku wilted but quickly sought to rectify his stupidity by planning his next nightly visit to the library.

.

.

He almost wishes he had stayed oblivious. Almost. 

Izuku, try as he might, could barely process the sheer amounts of bullshit he was reading because  _ what the fuck  _ and  _ how the fuck  _ was Konohagakure still standing, and better yet, how had the world not descended into complete chaos? Not just the economy, but the entire _ infrastructure _ seemed dependent on mercenaries for hire. Mercenaries called ninja that  _ kill other people for a living and train kids to partake in their military. Oh my fucking god, Konoha is just like Sparta. Bloody, militant, discipline-and-obedience-above-all Sparta.  _

Holy _fuck._ Izuku is fucked, is he not? He is.

Izuku knew his mother would faint upon hearing the sheer amounts of derogatory language he was using, and still is using, but he could hardly give a damn. Seriously, what the  _ fuck  _ was his life? What kind of bullshit was this even?!

That had to be the extent, right? There was no way things could get any worse than that. 

He should not have held his breath. Because, haha, guess what, there was more bullshit that went against EVERY FUCKING LOGIC that existed. No wonder he had not seen much of, if not any, books on science! There were no rules! No limits! Just endless magical chakra bullshit that went entirely,  _ thoroughly, _ against every single goddamn thing that he has ever,  _ ever  _ learned in school. 

Yes, Izuku was losing his shit once more. Because what did these people do with these revolutionary abilities? They created numerous ways on how to kill the human body and then some fucking more. 

Of course, they did. Of fucking course.

Izuku laughed. And laughed, and laughed some more, and then punched the nearest bookshelf.

  
  


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His heart was pounding so hard in his chest, so relentlessly, so much so like brass drums, so  _ loudly _ , Izuku was surprised nobody seemed to notice. What was even more of a surprise, nobody seemed to notice the bag of stolen goods in his hands. Sure, Izuku had run the calculations through his mind numerous times, timed it to the very millisecond, and made contingencies for his contingencies; He would have never believed it would be so, so  _ easy _ . __

Nothing happened, nobody noticed him, and nobody saw him. 

  
  


So why did he feel disappointed? Why did his heart hurt so much?

  
  


Wiping away any traces of tears from his eyes, Izuku swiftly moved towards the backwoods while keeping out of sight from any unwanted passersby. Keeping to the shadows of alleyways and the back of streets was far less complicated than he thought it would be. Once again, he went unnoticed by the general public. 

_ 'Sometimes being short comes in handy _ ,' Izuku muses as he squeezes through a gap in some fence. If he were still in his fourteen-year-old body there would have been no way he would have fit, but luckily this body was merely five. He continued like this until he reached the red light district.

Aware of how much more dangerous the area was  _ (and how his mother would probably cry and worry herself sick if she knew what he was doing),  _ Izuku moved to the roof of the buildings, like he had seen other people do. Probably Shinobis, if he had to hedge a guess, and carefully maneuvered himself from one building to the next and so on. It was slow-moving, sort of tedious, and probably would have been a lot quicker on foot, but at least it kept him from being a potential assault victim. Izuku shivered at the thought.

Now and then, Izuku would stop to check the sun's relative position in the sky and would either pick up his pace or slow down to catch his breath, moving with the ease of someone who had done something numerous times before. He easily avoided climbing up pipes that he knew were barely holding themselves together after too much weathering. And took extra care to steer clear from the more rowdy and seedier areas by looping around parts he knew was less of a risk and just generally kept to himself. 

Soon enough as the sun began to set, Izuku finally reached the end of the red light district and headed northeast to where he knew an old oak tree stood tall and regal and a lot bigger than any of the trees from his old life. The tree was so large Izuku was convinced a small cottage could fit inside it and still have some breathing room. When he had first discovered it, it already had a hole a few feet deep. It made for a perfect home away from, well, no home since he was sort of homeless.

Izuku fell in love the second he laid eyes on it.

It took him some time to prepare living inside the broad tree possible, but after two months of sneaking inside the public library and hitting the books, and "borrowing" tools from a carpenter, Izuku had made himself his own little home. Well, kind of. The plumbing and heating were a work in progress at the moment. But! At least he now had a roof over his head and somewhere to go when it is dark outside rather than a soft patch of grass or cardboard.

It was nice having something to focus on rather than drifting from day to day in a mindless haze of figuring out what he can do to get a meal. It made him start to feel like himself again, made him curious to learn more about this strange yet fascinating new world he lived in now, reminded him of how he used to be; It was a feeling worth keeping a hold-of and never letting go.

Hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left kudos, commented, or just read this fic! I appreciate all the love and support this fic has gotten so far. I know it’s a cliche of me to say this, believe me, I know it is, but I’m going to say it anyway: every kudos and every comment and every new hit this story gets motivates me to do better.
> 
> So I want to thank whoever you are that is reading this and say I love you, your amazing, and I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it! <3


	3. Can I Make You Stay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here’s some more angst, my lovelies. But fear not, there is some comfort. A certain someone has demanded to be written. Enjoy!

Izuku had a working routine, a specific way of how he spent his days. It kept order to his life and gave him structure. It supported him and built a bridge away from the bad memories... but the bridge was a broken one. And sometimes, it falls apart, and Izuku finds himself drowning in his many mistakes, worrying over the bad things that haven’t happened yet. Sometimes, sometimes, alone with his thoughts and nothing to keep him afloat, he lost his mind.

Misery wants company, and it chose Izuku. 

Each time he goes under, he takes a little more time to rebuild and conquer against the madness he chokes on, a bit more time to stitch together each broken piece of his mind and pull himself up from the guilt that weighed him, but it was possible. Izuku does it; he pulls himself up and begins the day anew. 

If he’s a bit more lifeless in his movements, rawer and stretched thin on the inside, more flayed on the outside, well, at least Izuku does not have anyone to worry about to death about him anymore. 

His heart hurt, but that is nothing new. Sometimes he likes to pretend it felt good to cover up just how much it tore him up inside, to cover up the creeping fear that pulls at him. Izuku is broken and beaten on the floor, but that is nothing new. He’s crying, but it no longer surprises him.

Izuku is broken beyond repair, he fears. However, that is nothing new.

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He smiles.

His smile wavers for a second.

No one notices.

No one cares.

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.

“Why are you crying?”

"I-It does not matter."

"If it didn't matter you wouldn't be crying, stupid."

Izuku looked up at the other boy with tear tracks and red-rimmed eyes. He spoke barely louder than a whisper, “No one wants to play with me.”

  
  


The other boy frowned at his response, and Izuku found this strange. Usually, everyone ignores him or insults him and walks away laughing. Or tell him he is weird, and why would they want to play with a weirdo like him? Or that their mom said he is a bad kid and asked him what he did. Why was this boy an anomaly? Why? Why does Izuku never know why? 

Izuku rubbed his eyes as more tears fell before turning to the other boy with a glare, “Well? What are you waiting for? Why are you bothering? Is this a sort of joke to you? Because I can assure you, I have had way worse than this! I can take it, I can, so do not look down on me-ttebayo!” Dattebayo?

A sigh, “Come on, don’t be stupid, okay, I’m not laughing at you. And why would I even do that? Ugh, how annoying. ‘Tachi said I should try to be more kind and make friends my age, so...would you like to come to play with me?”

His eyes widened. An almost foreign sensation pulled at his lips, tugging them up, and for a split second, he did not know whether to let it happen or not. It confused him before Izuku recalled a life of hugs and warmth and a mother who loved him. The sensation was a smile, he remembers vaguely.

It has been so long since he has had a reason to smile that he had forgotten how. Nevertheless, he tries anyway before offering his hand to the other boy. “Okay! My name is Uzumaki Izuku, don’t forget it!”

And then something monumental occurs; the universe stopped, balancing on a precipice of doing and leaving, destiny and choosing, a friendship that should never happen, happens. 

Uchiha Sasuke grabbed Uzumaki Izuku's hand with a firm grip. 

“Mines Uchiha Sasuke,” Sasuke smirked, “Do not forget it, idiot.”

Izuku beamed, and the world was never the same again.


	4. Nothing Gold Can Stay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What’s your favorite part so far in this story? Mine is Sas and Izu meeting. Please let me know in the comments your thoughts! It’d mean a lot to me if you guys did ♥️♥️ Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Hiruzen looks down at the last couple of months' report with a frown that felt less and less out of place as the seasons changed, his problems piled, and disaster upon disasters struck. He’s lost everyone he had ever held dear, and now Hiruzen is old and weary and tired. And yet he pushes on, continues to persevere just as his predecessors have done before him, and holds the sacred torch of the Will of Fire still until he can finally pass it on.

Still, time grew on him, and he knew it was going to run out one day. It will fade and it will wither, and someday he will no longer be a part of this world. Hiruzen wishes he knew what to do, what was right, and what is wrong; he felt lost. 

He felt old.

Hiruzen sighs and tries his best to pretend he did not just age another decade, as his thoughts spiraled and ran away from him and grew a life of its own. Looking down at the last report again, Hiruzen feels his instincts rear up. Something was off. Grabbing the last several month's reports, he quickly laid them side by side.

_ There.  _

‘..Uzumaki Naruto is... doing well... in perfect health... getting along well with his peers..’

‘...Uzumaki Naruto is... doing well... made more friends..’

‘Uzumaki Naruto is… doing well… getting along… perfect health… more friends..’

It was all recycled, there were no specifics, and it made his many years of a shinobi and age-old battlefield paranoia stand on edge. Reading those reports unnerved him. Something was wrong, and Hiruzen was going to find out what.

Hiruzen smiled grimly to nothing in particular. He was planning on waiting another year before meeting the boy, but he figured now was as good a time as any. If he was right, and Naruto is gone, there was only one person to blame in all likelihood. One person who always advocated for Naruto being in their care. Hopefully, he is wrong, but Hiruzen was not the God of Shinobi for nothing.

If you want answers, Hiruzen found, sometimes you must search for them yourself. 

  
  


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Izuku laughs brilliantly as Sasuke chases him with feigned annoyance, which is betrayed only by the twinkle and smile in his eyes, the lack of bite in his words. “Come back here, dammit, Izu!”

Izuku’s laughter was like a chime of bells, sweet as sugar, and brighter than the sun as Sasuke ran after him. Clothing askew and covered in mud from when Izuku had jumped him, instigating yet another prank war between them. 

Out of breath, Sasuke pushes himself to his limit to catch the troublesome idiot and is granted an indignant squawk of surprise. Which then turned into peals of laughter as Sasuke started torturing the annoying bastard. 

“Haha, no, Saschan, haha, h-have mercy! Uncle! Uncle!” 

Sasuke pointedly ignored his father’s ever-so-present disapproval when he arrived home with his clothes ruined and a slight smile on his lips as his mother fussed over him. Unbeknownst to the proud smile his brother wore, only contrasted by the ever-present worry within tired eyes.

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The sky is a beautiful chaos of colors, unorganized in its beauty, a masterpiece very few artists can truly capture. Watching the sunset in Konoha, and its conglomerate of vivid colors and cotton candy clouds turn midnight was extraordinary to Izuku. Even more so atop the Hokage monument. The view was astounding, like something out of a dream or a fairytale. It almost did not seem real to Izuku.

Finding the north star Polaris, Izuku couldn’t help but smile a little. His mom would have loved it here. It used to be a routine of theirs to travel in search of the perfect sunset, the best view, and he has finally found it. Only, she's somewhere too far out of reach, and he is a dead teen walking amongst the living. They could not have been further apart from one another. And yet, the stars looked the same as they did back home. How peculiar.

Lifting his arm, he began to count the many constellations aloud, tracing each one with a finger, and for a moment, just a moment, he could almost imagine his mom sitting beside him. He could more or less hear her gently pointing out constellations to him, nudging him awake now and then, as he began to doze off. She would laugh and try to bargain another fifteen minutes with him. In his drowsy state, he'd say okay and would let her continue talking until he fell asleep on her shoulder, not even minutes later. The next time he would awake, it would be in his All Might themed room tucked into bed. She was never too far out of reach before. By his own doing, no less.

If only he could have just fifteen more minutes with her. If only he could see her again. If only...

Feeling sick at the thought of going back to an empty home Izuku began collecting wood to build a small fire. It wasn’t until he was warm again that he noticed how chilly the night was. Nodding in approval to the decent-sized fire he had stoked, Izuku took out some of the food he had carried up the monument with him.

The sound of someone clearing their throat caused him to pause mid-bite. “Hello?”

The creeping fear he had felt is washed away with the next few words the stranger spoke. “There’s no need to be alarmed now, my boy. I only came for the view. It’s wonderful up here, is it not?” 

Eying the stranger, Izuku made a quick assessment of his character. Seemingly kind and warm eyes, wizened by age, he appeared like the grandfatherly type. It made his shoulders relax a bit, but still, Izuku kept his guard up, knowing better than to believe the promises of a stranger to do him no harm. But his instinctual need to help others before himself did not operate on logic, and by the time Izuku had realized what he was doing, he had already made space for the stranger to sit beside him.

“Y-yeah, it is,” Izuku answered as the old man took a seat beside him with a grateful smile. “i-it’s really b-beautiful up here. It kind of puts things into perspective, d-don’t you think?”

The stranger hummed in thought. “What do you mean?”

Izuku blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, looking anywhere other than the stranger and his inquiring look. “W-well, um, how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things? We’re all just parts of something much larger than ourselves. 

Together, and we are strong, but apart and we’re weak. A wise person once said, ‘let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone.’ Another, ‘we cannot live better than in seeking to become better.' P-perhaps someday, once everyone can understand and r-respect one another, we can all come together and be a part of something greater than we once were apart.”

As the silence continued and the stranger had not refuted his statement or said anything, Izuku began to fidget and sweat noticeably. 

At last, the stranger let out a weary sigh. “Even if that were so, people are stubborn and will not unite unless for a common cause. And even then, there are centuries of bad blood on every shinobis hand. Peace will not last forever in the world in which we live. As long as we live and love and remember, there will always be hate and loss in return.”

Izuku stared hard at the ground for a long moment before turning to glare fiercely at the stranger. “How can you say that without even trying! How dare you, how dare everyone be content with the way things are?! Do you not look forward to a day no one has to worry about leaving the village and being killed? Do you not long for the day when no more senseless killing has to happen?! Do you not wish for a day where we can all put our pasts aside and work towards a future without death?! Why?! What we have is  _ not _ peace!”

The stranger smiled sadly. “I do wish that things could be as different as you say. And maybe this is not the ideal kind of peace you have in mind, but it is the best we can contend ourselves with right now. You... You remind me of Konoha’s founder Senju Hashirama. You both share the same philosophy and drive for peace. Perhaps, with more young people like you, our future will be a brighter one.”

Izuku gritted his teeth as frustrated tears came to his eyes and the familiar feeling of hopelessness washed over him, it wasn’t  _ fair _ . He repeated so out loud, earning a wistful chuckle from the stranger.

“It really isn’t.”


End file.
